In the thick, humming night of a city that never truly sleeps — only flickers. Flickers between traffic signals and app pings, between delivery promises and the quiet violence of exhaustion.
He collapsed just beyond Gate Number Three in a residential colony in Delhi, somewhere between the parked dumpers and the weary under-construction site of the Metro.
He fell softly, without spectacle. The kind of death a city absorbs without noticing, like rain into dust.
In a few days, the Resident Welfare Association had drafted a statement — not out of grief, but out of inconvenience: “What if it had been one of us?”
The Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union are long behind us, and we’re now hurtling toward a tri-polar world dominated by America, Russia, and China. These three powers vy to shape global influence, often competing but sometimes colluding. As the saying goes, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” So, the central question for this lecture is: What path are the nations of South Asia—including Afghanistan and Iran—likely to take? What alternatives and tools do they possess to navigate this landscape? Most importantly, what vision of society and power should guide them toward a viable future?
Speaker :
Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy is a nuclear physicist, author, and a prominent activist who is particularly concerned with promotion of freedom of speech, secularism, scientific temper and education. He is the founder-director of The Black Hole in Islamabad and as the head of Mashal Books in Lahore, he leads a major translation effort to produce books in Urdu that promote modern thought, human rights, and emancipation of women.
Prof Hoodbhoy received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from MIT and has taught physics and mathematics at Forman Christian College-University in Lahore, at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad and later at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
He is a recipient of the Baker Award for Electronics and the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics. He was visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland. In 2003 he was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science.
Here is a list of a few of his publications :
– Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future, published by Routledge (London, New York), 2023. – Confronting the Bomb – Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, (edited) Oxford University Press, 2013. – Education and the State – Fifty Years of Pakistan, (edited) Oxford University Press, 1998. – Islam & Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, published by ZED Books, London, in 1991 with translations in Turkish, Malaysian, Indonesian, Arabic, Spanish, Sindhi, and Urdu. – Proceedings of School on Fundamental Physics and Cosmology, co-edited with A. Ali, World Scientific, Singapore, 1991.
Following is a statement on the violent displacement and dispossession in Dhubri, Assam by some leading civil society members of the state who were also the conveners of the Assam United Citizens Convention.
We strongly condemn the inhuman, brutal and cruel eviction of more than thousands of farmers and labourers from Chap Revenue Circle of Dhubri district by the government of Assam. Such atrocities against innocent people are unusual and indicative of a perverted mind. We don’t know who could be the next victims of such atrocities. The government says the people are ‘encroachers’. However, the attitude of the ruling classes towards land has been exploitative since the colonial times. Although the direct use of land is for settlement, agriculture, and other productive livelihoods of citizens, but for the government it is primarily a means of generating revenue. Since the colonial era, the government has not focused on the leasing and resettlement of landless indigenous people and other legal residents. However, the preceding governments at least allowed the people residing on government land to live in peace with some degree of humanitarian sympathy. But the BJP government has evicted these citizens like heartless zamindars. They are planning to hand over the land of the indigenous residents of Assam to the big capitalists at home and abroad. Thus, the poor tribals, backward castes and char people have been turned into s beggars on the streets within a day. It is supposed to be a step forward for ‘development’ and ‘industrialisation’. The ‘development’ of the state by killing people has assumed a demonic form now. We have also seen an anti-Muslim propaganda campaign openly and sometimes subtly launched day and night by the government-owned media to cover up this evil character. Therefore, we demand the government to stop such evictions and warn the people to be vigilant against this evil government conspiracy.
Hiren Gohain, Harekrishna Deka, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Paresh Malakar, Abdul Mannan, Santanu Borthakur Conveners, Assam United Citizens Convention
Is Bihar being turned into a test case of disenfranchising people?
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr
India pledged to usher in a democracy with universal adult franchise.
It was the late 1940s, when India, a newly independent nation, whose less than 10% population was then literate, embarked on this unique experiment, unheard of in those times.
The architects of Independence rejected all the Western prescriptions that openly said that .’.. India had no democratic future‘ (Winston Churchill) or ”monarchial arrangement best suited the Asian people‘ (British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to Nehru, 1949), and (to quote a student of history) ‘met the imperial argument on direct terms, firmly believing in the possibility of creating democratic citizens through democratic politics.’ (India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy by Madhav Khosla)
What is worth emphasising is that all those great leaders who shaped a forward-looking Constitution were on the same page when it came to granting the right to vote. For example, B.R Ambedkar, who was chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, firmly believed that ‘To limit the franchise, was to misunderstand the meaning of democracy ... ‘
None of them dithered over this provision despite knowing well that even the Western countries had not fully adopted universal adult franchise. Remember, Switzerland granted the right to vote to women only in 1971.
Much water has flown down the Ganges, the Jhelum, the Brahmaputra, the Godavari or the Kaveri.
A good 75 years after the adoption of the Constitution (1950), today we are faced with a challenge that at first looks unbelievable, the present ruling dispensation seems to have embarked on a journey in an exactly reverse direction. [Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/democracy-few]
Following is a statement issued by some eminent citizens of Assam, issued in Guwahati on 3 July 2025. It calls for a civil society intervention, via the Assam United Citizens Convention to be held today and tomorrow (5 and 6 July), following the Garukhuti cow scam.
We have seen how our state is being run by the present government. The Garukhuti episode has made it amply clear how this government had thrown all the norms of government functioning to the winds and how favouritism and corruption have eaten into the core of governance. We have also seen how the chief minister of Assam is reacting to the situation and what he has been saying all the time. We think that the Garukhuti incident is not a single and isolated one. Garukhuti symbolises the basic character of Himanta Biswa Sarma government.
How they have become arsenal for the majoritarian Hindutva forces to convert the sovereign, independent, secular, socialist republic into a Hindu Rashtra.
25 th June 2025 happened to be the fiftieth year of the internal emergency imposed by the then Indira Gandhi regime. Much has changed during all these years but till date we are still far away from a balanced review of that period.
What really prompted Indira Gandhi to declare emergency , whether drive for personal power was the key factor, as has been reiterated multiple times…..
On the other hand, whether it could be said that she correctly perceived how sinister forces in the subcontinent were hell bent on sabotaging the democratic experiment at the behest of imperialist powers , who were even found to be provoking police and security forces to pursue their dubious agenda.
No doubt such a holistic review is a need of the hour but one thing cannot be denied that the biggest beneficiary of this whole exercise has been the Hindutva rightwing forces who are keen to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra
Conversations on Palestine with an activist, a poet, a scholar
Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi (Come in, I have opened my doors dear guest) is an offshoot of Mere Ghar Aakar Toh Dekho, a national campaign in India, in Karnataka. It aims to counter the forces of hate, bigotry and polarization that have gained ground in the country by redrawing boundaries and expanding notions of trust and community. The campaign involves participants from diverse backgrounds opening their own homes and hearts to guests from equally varied locations. Teredide Mane has grown as a community, learning and unlearning through practice the concepts of guest and host, home and house, consent and comfort, celebration and sharing, listening and observing—both commonalities and diversity. [Content and editing by Madhu Bhushan, Winnu and Anita Cheria. Illustrations and design by Winnu]
We invite you into this moving and powerful conversation that has been reproduced largely in the speakers’ own words, and hope that you will add to it and take it forward. Read the whole conversation here (https://shorturl.at/JzvI5). Or a shorter note on the conversation here (https://shorturl.at/NkLHz).
Over the past months, the genocide in Palestine has come up multiple times in our meetings. Apart from engaging in acts of protest and solidarity, there was a need to go beyond ‘news noise’, and meet people engaged with and from Palestine. We decided to create a virtual space, one that was safe and intimate, to be able listen deeply to friends we had connected with in the course of our work and life journeys. This conversation, with Lisa Suhair Majaj, Smadar Lavie and Issa Samander in October, 2024, came about as a result of this intention.
Lisa Suhair Majaj is a passionate Palestinian American poet whose writings and poetry echo with the spirit of the land and people that she was herself exiled and alienated from.
How saffrons are engaged in militarising Indian society not so surreptitiously.
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr
“…though this be madness, yet there is method in it“?
-Polonious, in ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare
Pushback of ‘alleged foreigners’ It was May end, when the Assam government led by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Himanta Biswa Sarma, was in the news for its policy of pushback where it was found literally pushing what it termed as ‘illegal foreigners’ into Bangladesh.
What was noticeable was that when its controversial pushback policy came under the scanner of national and international human rights organisations, the Assam government approved another scheme that has raised new questions?
This was a ‘special’ scheme to make the border areas, especially those inhabited by indigenous people living in “vulnerable and remote areas”, safe. ..
What image does one conjure up when Haryana finds mention anywhere ! It is the image of the millenium city Gurgaon – with offices of leading MNCs or neighbouring Nuh – the Muslim majority district with one of the lowest literacy rates in India or the dominant Jat peasantry, the growing gender imbalance in the society which even gets reflected in the phenomenon of purchasing of brides from Bihar or other areas, etc
Various cases of dalit oppression add another gloomy layer to the not so bright picture.
Rarely does one find voices of the ’other Haryana’ getting reflected in the public discourse.
….Writer, journalist, left activist Tarun Kanti Bose’s new book, ’ And Quietly Flows the Dawn : Haryana— Its Identity Issues, Grassroots Movements and Alternative Endeavours breaks a new ground in this dominant discourse and brings before us many such unheard voices.
‘मैंने जापान में जनता को अपनी स्वतंत्रता की सीमाएं अपनी सरकार द्वारा स्वेच्छा से स्वीकार करते हुए देखा है…लोग इस सर्वव्यापी मानसिक दासता को प्रसन्नता और गर्व के साथ स्वीकार करते हैं क्योंकि वे अपने आपको शक्ति की एक मशीन, जिसे राष्ट्र कहा जाता है, में बदलने की तीव्र इच्छा रखते हैं…’
-रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर, ‘नेशनलिज्म’
बच्चों के लिए फौजी तालीम !
भारतीय संघ के सबसे समृद्ध सूबा कहलाने वाले महाराष्ट्र ने स्कूली शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में एक नयी पहल हाथ में ली है। वह स्कूली छात्रों के लिए कक्षा 1 से ही बुनियादी फौजी प्रशिक्षण देना शुरू करेगा ताकि बच्चों में ‘देशभक्ति, अनुशासन और बेहतर शारीरिक स्वास्थ्य की नींव डाली जा सके।’ एक स्थूल अनुमान के हिसाब से चरणबद्ध तरीके से लागू की जाने वाली इस योजना में लगभग ढाई लाख सेवानिवृत्त सैनिकों को तैनात किया जाएगा। …..
यह प्रस्ताव कई स्तरों पर चिन्तित करने वाला है:
एक, जैसा कि जानकारों एवं शिक्षा शास्त्रियों ने बताया है कि राज्य का शिक्षा जगत एक जटिल संकट से गुजर रहा है, जिसका प्रतिबिम्बन कमजोर होती अवरचना / इन्फ्रास्टक्चर /infrastructure, अध्यापकों की कमी और नीतियों को लागू करने के रास्ते में आने वाली प्रचंड बाधाओं में उजागर होता है। ..अगर सरकार की तरफ से कक्षा एक से आगे फौजी प्रशिक्षण प्रदान करने की योजना को लागू किया गया तो उसका असर स्कूली शिक्षा के लिए आवंटित किए जा रहे संसाधनों में अधिक कटौती में दिखाई देगा।
[We are publishing below a report of a press conference by the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE that details the status of struggles for ecological justice from across the country. Lifting the mask off ritualistic official observances of the World Environment Day, while the government continues to wreak havoc on the ecology and the commons, this report gives a sense of the struggles in different parts of the country. At the end of this report is the link to its full online recording.]
As the world marked yet another Environment Day on 5th June, the National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ), a pan Indian forum of NAPM, brought together voices from different parts of the country in an online press conference on 6th June, to share the current status of ecological justice struggles. Speakers from Kashmir, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha, and other states addressed the Press Conference. These voices reinforced the reality that both the Central Govt and different states governments are majorly complicit in environmental violations, enabling large profiteering, extractive agendas of mega-corporations, unleashing repression on democratic movements. Moderated by well-known environmental activist Soumya Dutta, the meeting saw good participation from both media and movements.
Why this latest move by the state government is a worrying development.
“I have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government, which through various educational agencies regulates their thoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful when they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them through a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for the complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own recipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness.”
-Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism
The richest state in the Indian union, Maharashtra, has embarked on a new initiative in the field of school education. It would provide basic military training to school students starting from Class 1, to promote “patriotism, discipline, and physical fitness among young learners from an early age”. Around 2.5 lakh ex-servicemen would be involved to deliver this training which will be introduced in a phased manner.
Undoubtedly, in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, this proposal will be able to gather enough eyeballs in the rest of the country and it would not be surprise that few other Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states would implement similar schemes in education.
[In two very significant developments in the non-mainstream Left, the Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) of the Dhanbad-Jharkhand region and the Lal Nishan Party (LNP) of Maharashtra merged with the CPI(ML) Liberation. While the merger with the took place in September 2024, the one with the LNP happened on 31 May 2025. What is really significant about these two developments is that both the MCC and the LNP, in different ways moved away from orthodox thinking from the beginning. It is not surprising then that they decided to merge with the CPI(ML) Liberation, which in my reckoning, has made some very significant departures from orthodoxy on a range of issues concerning the Indian social and political scene (as also on matters such as democracy and climate change). It is no wonder then that while the MCC, founded by the legendary AK Roy, had developed strong ties of the trade unions in the colliery with the larger adivasi Jharkhandi society, the LNP in its time, distinguished itself by standing by and campaigning for Ambedkar in the early 1950s.
Here we reproduce two pieces by CPI(ML) General Secretary DIPANKAR BHATTACHARYA published in their journal Liberation. The pieces separately discuss the two mergers. – AN]
Lal Nishan Party’s Unification with CPI(ML): Towards a Stronger Communist Movement to Defeat the Fascist Offensive
To defeat the growing fascist offensive, India today urgently needs a stronger presence and role of the Left. The merger of the Lal Nishan Party of Maharashtra with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), announced at a unity conference in Shrirampur on 31 May, marks an encouraging step in this direction. This unification brings together two great legacies of India’s communist movement in a state which has historically been the cradle of the quest for social equality. Maharashtra also happens to be the ideological fountainhead of Indian fascism and every advance of the communist movement in Maharashtra today has great value. The unification of LNP and CPI(ML) therefore evokes a lot of hope in the centenary year of India’s organised communist movement.
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”
– George Elliot (English Novelist and Poet, 1819-1880)
Firdaus Alam alias Asjad Babu – age 24 years – is dead.
Details of this cold blooded killing have appeared in a section of the media and make chilling reading. (1)
Asjad – a native of a village in Kishenganj district of Bihar, married hardly 7 months back, worked as a tailor in Panipat, Haryana.That tragic evening, he was sitting with his friends including his brother Asad Raza in a playground when the accused approached him and started mocking him for wearing a skullcap.
None of the friends had any personal enmity with the accused Narendra alias “Susu Lala”.When confronted, he felt further agitated and attacked Asjad with a knife, inflicting serious fatal injuries.
Death of Asjad is no ordinary death.
It appears to be a hate crime.
Hate crime is a special crime where a person is targeted just because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s colour, look, dress, which reveals the person’s community, religion or belief etc. One does not know whether the police or the law-and-order machinery would be ready to acknowledge this brutal murder as a hate crime (2) because that would entail stricter charges, which may be followed by stricter punishment.
Following is a statement of All India Solidarity with Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, endorsed by 43 organizations and fifty individuals.
The Siang river in Upper Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. Photo courtesy Anupam Chakravartty, Down to Earth
We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), which has been spearheading the people’s protest against the proposed 11,500 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) of the National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) in Arunachal Pradesh, which will be disastrous for this whole area. We support the demands of SIFF for withdrawal of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) deployed in Beging village for doing the Pre-Feasibility Report (PFR) of the project.
Statement by AXOM NAGARIK SAMAJ on the targeting of minorities today
Are we witnessing a textbook case of fascist tendencies being practised in Assam? How long can a section of religious minorities will be subjected to all kinds of atrocities and humiliation by branding them as Bangladeshi foreigners? They are being harassed and humiliated all the time. We have been told time and again that they are the cause of all our evils and they are a threat to our existence. How can the victims turn into victors? What a classic case of distorted logic.
We had a six-year-long Assam movement to get rid of the Bangladeshi foreigners. Then overnight AASU turned into AGP and ruled Assam for ten long years. Thereafter came the Congress government which ruled Assam for 15 years when the present chief minister was in charge of the implementation of the Assam Accord. Then there was that famous declaration of Modi that all Bangladeshi foreigners would have to leave Assam with their baggage by 16 May, 2014. Now the BJP has been in power for the last 10 years. Nothing happened. Instead, the CAA was brought in to grant citizenship to a section of linguistic minorities. Come any elections, blame the religious minorities and do all kinds of nasty things to them and use them to win the votes of the majority community. The brandishing a particular religion as a threat and criminalizing the religious minorities has become a well-known tactic of the Hindutva brigade. Now they are going to issue weapons to the indigenous people against the religious minorities. Have we seen any civil war-like situation anywhere in Assam? Then why do you have to do this? Why promote this communal hatred and create tension among the common people? It is heartening that the people in Assam have generally maintained peace, except for a few minor incidents here and there, and have remained calm while maintaining amity among themselves everywhere in the state.
We appeal to all right-thinking people including the Opposition political parties and civil society organizations to condemn and oppose this nefarious design of the ruling combine.
Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, President Paresh Malakar, General Secretary
Today happens to be Africa day and my friend Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni reminds us in a social media post that Africa’s is still a liberation struggle, for “strategic natural resources (minerals. oil, and others) are on the soil of Africa but not yet in our hands.” Something of how Africa is still sought to be kept in subjugation was evident in Trump’s meeting with the South African President in the White House recently.
Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters, before the 2024 elections. Photo: EFF, courtesy Mail and Guardian
What happened in the White House meeting between POTUS Donald Trump and the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa three days ago was quite appalling even for a non-South African to watch. The whole thing was a repeat performance, but far more humiliating, of what Trump and JD Vance had done with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukranian President. This meeting is being described as Trumps’ “ambush” of Ramaphosa. What is more, timed with this ambush was a staged “arrival” of some 49 families – men, women and children – claiming to be “farmers” fleeing the “white genocide” in South Africa. They were welcomed by US officials at the airport saying things like “Welcome to the United States, the land of freedom. It is such a pleasure to welcome you here” and so on.
सिटीजन्स फॉर डेमोक्रेसी ने निम्नलिखित बयान 17 मई को नई दिल्ली में जारी किया।
सिटीजन्सफॉरडेमोक्रेसी ने पहलगाम में हुए भयानक आतंकी हमले के बाद अपनी चिंता व्यक्त की है कि यह हत्याकांड विश्व शांति के लिए खतरा है और इसके परिणाम स्वरूप, अंतर्राष्ट्रीय कानून के शासन में और अधिक गिरावट आने की संभावना है, इतना ही नहीं, भारत के लोकतंत्र के लिए भी गंभीर ख़तरा पैदा हुआ है।
पहलगाम में जो कुछ हुआ, वह निस्संदेह राजनीतिक उद्देश्यों को प्राप्त करने के लिए आतंक का उपयोग था और स्थानीय कश्मीरी मुसलमानों के नेतृत्व में भारतीय आबादी के सभी वर्गों ने इसकी निंदा की। कश्मीरी मुसलमान पीड़ितों की सहायता के लिए आगे आए और इस कृत्य के खिलाफ बड़े पैमाने पर प्रदर्शन किए। हालाँकि, भारत सरकार की प्रतिक्रिया न तो संयमित थी और न ही संतुलित थी, बल्कि सत्तारूढ़ भारतीय जनता पार्टी और संघ परिवार की विचारधारा और घरेलू राजनीतिक उद्देश्यों से प्रेरित थी। हालाँकि प्रधान मंत्री सऊदी अरब की अपनी यात्रा अधूरी छोड़ कर वापस आ गए, लेकिन सरकार द्वारा बुलाई गई सभी दलों की बैठक में उपस्थित नहीं रहे। सर्वदलीय बैठक में पहलगाम में हुई सुरक्षा चूक के बारे में खुल कर जानकारी नहीं दी गई, न ही जांच की कोई रूपरेखा घोषित की गई। दोष का ठीकरा तुरंत पाकिस्तान पर फोड़ा गया, साथ ही सिंधु जल संधि को स्थगित करने जैसी कार्रवाई की गई, जिससे कुछ आतंकवादियों की कथित हरकतों के लिए सभी पाकिस्तानी लोगों को सामूहिक सजा दी गई। संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद में पेश करने के लिए आतंकवादी हमले में पाकिस्तान की साँठगाँठ के कोई ठोस सबूत जुटाने का प्रयास नहीं किया गया।
Attention: General Secretary, WFTU secretariat@wftucentral.org Women’s Committee women@wftucentral.org Asia Pacific Regional Office wftuasiapacific@gmail.com; c.srikumaraidef@gmail.com
Subject: Complaint against CITU and AITUC (Kerala, India) for their sexist remarks and non-cooperation with KAHWA women workers in violation of WFTU Constitution
The following statement issued by the Citizens for Democracy in New Delhi on 17 May 2025 on the war and its aftermath.
Citizens for Democracy expresses its alarm at the aftermath of the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam, which endangers world peace and leads to further breakdown in the rule of international law, as well as poses a further threat to democracy within India itself.
What happened in Pahalgam was undoubtedly the use of terror to achieve political objectives and it was rightly condemned by all sections of the Indian population, led by local Kashmiri Muslims themselves, who rushed to the aid of the victims and held huge demonstrations against the act. The response of the Government of India was, however, neither measured nor balanced, but was dictated by the ideology and domestic political objectives of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar. Though the Prime Minister cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and rushed back, he did not address the meeting of all parties that was convened by the government itself. In the all-party meeting, the major security lapses in Pahalgam which allowed the terror attack to happen were not adequately explained, nor was any modality of enquiry announced. The finger of blame was immediately pointed at Pakistan, along with actions like putting the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, thereby inflicting collective punishment on all Pakistani people for the purported action of a few terrorists. No effort was made to gather hard evidence to show the Pakistani state’s involvement in the terror attack and present to the UN Security Council.
Why the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s move of using public funds for imparting religious instruction violates Article 28 of the Constitution.
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“No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State Funds” unless “established under any endowment or trust which requires that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution”. (Article 28 of the Indian Constitution)
It has been more than 75 years since the founding fathers (and mothers) of the Constitution took this bold stand when they were shaping the guidelines around which the newly independent country would move forward. ..
…..Much water has flown down the Ganges, the Jamuna and all rivers of the country and it appears that slowly, but not so silently, attempts are on to water down the provisions of this Article and facilitating religious instruction in government schools through the back door.
The manner in which Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh has suddenly decided to hold summer workshops on the Ramayana and the Vedas in government schools across the state, without any broader consultation with the stakeholders involved in this endeavour, is symptomatic of the brazen attitude of the government. We are told that these workshops will be organised under the aegis of the International Ramayana and Vedic Research Institute, Ayodhya, and will include activities, like Ramlila, Ramcharitmanas recitation, Vedic chanting, painting, and mask-making.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 